BPOM Greenlights Sinovac Covid-19 Vaccine Manufactured by Bio Farma

KOMPAS.com- Indonesia’s Food and Drug Agency or BPOM has issued the Emergency Use Authorization [EUA] for the Chinese Sinovac pharmaceutical company’s Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Bio Farma, their state-owned Indonesian counterpart.

BPOM issued the EUA for 13 million doses of the vaccine on Tuesday. “[The manufacture of the vaccine] is a form of transfer technology [between Sinovac and Bio Farma],” said BPOM head Penny Lukito on Tuesday.

“The vaccines, which will be packed and manufactured in Indonesia with ingredients brought from China, comes weeks after more than three million doses of the vaccine that were brought from China was used in the first stages of Covid-19 vaccination,” she added.

Also read: Indonesian Ministry of Health: Covid-19 Vaccine Not A Coronavirus Cure

“The importing of the vaccines’ raw materials are carried twice. 15 million doses of the vaccine’s ingredients brought to Indonesia on January 12 is the first to be brought in. Another 11 milion will be brought from China on February 11.”

Penny maintained that the vaccines manufactured by Bio Farma should be re-registered with BPOM and tested for their ingredients, quality and safety, among other factors.

She noted that they still needed to be tested for evaluation, as well as a separate permit for the place of manufacture.

Also read: Indonesia Starts to Vaccinate the Elderly Against Covid-19 

Bio Farma President Director Honesti Basyir said the EUA from BPOM will “hasten Indonesia’s nationwide vaccine drive. The additional vaccines cleared by the EUA also made up for the shortfall of five million doses.”

“Sinovac will bring in 140 million doses of ingredients for the vaccine from China,” he added. Bio Farma has produced 15 million doses of the Sinovac Vaccine, half of which, or 7.5 million doses, was already produced for this month.

Indonesia has procured vaccines from Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Novavax as well as other manufacturers, to vaccinate up to 182 million people by 2022 so as to gain herd immunity against Covid-19. 

(Writer/Editor: Holy Kartika Nurwigati Sumartiningtyas)

Source: 

https://www.kompas.com/sains/read/2021/02/16/134500923/vaksin-covid-19-produksi-bio-farma-akhirnya-kantongi-izin-darurat-bpom?page=all#page2.